|—Abandoned Church, Kuoh Town—|
"How many times do I have to tell you, Freed, stop going out killing people blatantly." With a frown adorning her soft features, she said with power in her voice. "Do you want Devils to come after us?"
"Stop being such a coward, Ms. Fallen Angel." The white-haired young man said, his eyes lecherously checking the body of the Fallen Angel in front of him. "The heretics that mingle with cursed races such as Devils should be killed as soon as possible before they spread their disease to others. I'm just helping the world by eradicating the filth from it."
Her frown deepened, almost making her face look crooked due to the plain disgust evident within her gaze as she felt the sight of the priest lustfully checking her body.
She couldn't be called pure herself, and she was quite a sadist.
She loved inflicting damage on people, yet the gaze of the disgusting priest in front of her made her barely control herself from impaling him with a lighting spear.
After all, despite her twisted, vicious, sadistic personality, Raynare was still a pure maiden... yah, let's not that about that... Just that she gave too much in her desire of enjoying playing with her opponents that she ended up becoming a Fallen.
Not that she regretted… maybe a little but not much since she could feel herself freer than before. She was free to indulge in her desires as she wanted, unlike when she was a pure angel—a being restricted by shit tons of rules and regulations that made her suffocated despite, like others, her love for her father, the creator.
"Before killing others, why not spend a little time staring at yourself in the mirror? The world might be more peaceful if disgust like you didn't exist in it."
"Ouch. That hurts." Despite his face showing sadness, the ridicule that his smirk showed didn't vanish. "Are you, by any chance, going against the order of your superior Lord Kokabiel? I'm sure he isn't as nice as me to ignore a betrayal."
Raynare's face scrunched.
Initially, they were sent to Kuoh for two things—to look after potential dangerous Sacred Gear users and spy over Noah Pendragon.
The spy part was going good, but the Sacred Gear part was where everything messed up due to the involvement of priests sent by Kokabiel.
'And that weakling of psychopathic mentally retard Fallen.' Her gaze went towards the other Fallen Angel sitting on a broken pew placed at the third row from the start where she stood.
Dohnaseek, a Fallen Angel joined them after the change in mission by Kokabiel.
But what bugged her most was the sign of Azazel with Kokabiel over the papers sent to them by the hands of Lord Kokabiel through Dohnaseek.
If Lord Azazel wanted to change the mission, he should have contacted them directly and not through another medium like Dohnaseek — she internally pondered.
And the involvement of Lord Kokabiel made it all more suspicious, making Raynare suspicious that something might be cooking behind the scenes where they were being used as throwable pawns.
While she didn't mind giving her life for Lord Azazel, it was a different matter if someone else was involved who is suspicious of illegal activities by other higher-ups.
The subtle tension within the Grigori wasn't hidden by others, making it obvious that something was going on with the higher-ups that might end up with something drastic.
"You don't need to question the orders of Lord Kokabiel Raynare, you don't have the power over their decision. It would be better if you do what is asked of you less you want to die." Dohnaseek scoffed. "I don't think I need to explain the punishment for treason—it is a death sentence."
Her face became ugly hearing the blatant threat within his tone, making her clench her fists tightly, trying to hold the boiling anger within herself that wanted her to cut open Dohnaseek's stomach and let his guts spill out of it.
"I don't need you to tell me that, Dohnaseek. I'm the leader of this team, so it would be better if you act like my underline. Otherwise, you can leave this place and execute the orders alone. I won't stop you." She said before a smirk took over her face. "Anyway, the most you can do in an emergency situation is use yourself as a shield to halt the advancement of the enemy for some seconds. Your absence won't be missed."
I'll kill you bitch—was what his expression portrayed much to the pleasure Raynare felt seeing his disgusting expression. The only thing missing was her using a whip to straighten him to be a perfect subordinate for herself.
Self-reflection was needed — she nodded to herself. The thought alone made her clasp her legs together, hiding the flow of liquid that is threatening to release from there.
She can't show such unsightly behavior in front of her subordinates.
'Now that I think about it… I want to make Noah Pendragon my pet too… Ahhh~! That smug face! I can't help but feel a euphoric feeling as I imagine him on all four licking leg legs and all over the place. Such a perfect pet!'
Sadly, she knew her limits. Just being in his presence told her that if she fought him, she would die without a body. That's why, till now, she had made sure not to get into his negative side and only observed him from afar.
Being safe never hurts… that was till she received new orders from Lord Kokabiel that stated as plainly as they could—kill Noah Pendragon.
She didn't understand why. After all, being a member of the Pendragon Family, killing him wasn't the same as killing some random Sacred Gear user.
Leaving aside the fact whether they can kill him or not — as she could tell that it was going to be a useless endeavor — the fact that killing him would end up making the Pendragon Family against them, she didn't understand the reason behind the order.
'It really does feel like we're being used as a throwable pawn to check the power of Noah Pendragon.' Her eyes landed on Dohnaseek. 'He is definitely sent here to record the fight and to send back the information he will get on him.'
Of course it could be that she is overthinking, but all these coincidences can't be her overthinking. Everything matched so far with what she had thought.
She was more willing to believe that Dohnaseek was sent as a watcher than to help them achieve the objective.
"Are we really doing this?" She was brought out of her thoughts by the hushed voice of her teammate, Kalawarna.
A tall buxom woman with brown eyes and long, navy blue hair that obscured her right eye.
Kalawarna has been part of her team for as far as she could remember, and so she had quite some trust in her, same with the only other Fallen Angel, Mittelt.
If there was someone she thought was trustworthy right now was either Kalawarna or Mittelt, 'Even though Mittelt is also sadistic in nature and would kill people indiscriminately, I would still have her by my side than this white-haired bastard. It feels like he wouldn't mind betraying me at the moment's notice.'
It was the same with the other priest that had come with him, all were the same in her eyes.
"I don't know…" She replied with slight sourness in her voice. "We have no proof against them, and we can't really ignore Lord Kokabiel's order unless Lord Azazel himself intervenes. Sadly, we don't have a way to contact Lord Azazel."
This was the only problem. Being only Two-Winged Fallen Angel, it was close to impossible for them to personally contact Azazel. The most they could do was contact someone of lower post and hope he would contact Azazel in return.
The only problem with this thinking was that they didn't know whether the person who will pick up their call is also a subordinate of Kokabiel or not, making it impossible for them to double-check the order.
"So we are committing to it till the end?" Kalawarna said with a helpless voice. "So what's the plan then?"
'There is no plan.' — is what she wanted to say but remained quiet. If she had a plan then she wouldn't be standing here reading through the order over and over again trying to find even a single mistake in it that might help them come out of this situation.
She might be an arrogant bitch, but she still didn't want to die.
BOOM!
She was brought back from her thoughts as the roof of the already dying church was blasted open, alerting the inhabitants inside.
Raynare and Kalawarna hurriedly jumped, their wings flapping as they maintained a distance between the roof and themselves.
From the now hole in the roof, a shadow fell onto the ground before a male voice was heard within their ears.
"Surrender now! I'm only trying to save you guys!"
Staring at the black-haired youth wearing a simple shirt and pants with an overcoat, Raynare couldn't help but question with a slightly fearful smile.
"For future reference, what are you saving us from?"
A smirk formed over the face of the boy as if expecting such a question as he added.
"From whatever that is about to happen if you don't surrender."
"Attack him!" And that was the breaking point as Dohnaseek threw a lighting spear at him without giving it another thought.
"Oh my~, aren't you a rude one?" With a smug smirk plastered over his face, Noah's hand blurred as he casually caught the coming spear wanting to blast his head away.
If it was him before, the spear would definitely have burned his skin away. But now that he has been practicing barriers, he could do many things he could not do before.
Like what he was doing currently—if one looked closely, then they would find a thin sheet of a transparent layer covering Noah's hand, stopping the contact between himself and the spear of light, making it possible for him to capture it without getting burned in return.
After all, Devil or not, the spear of light was just a massive concentration of photons with the Holy Element in it.
If anyone caught it with their hands, they would find their hands burned to cinders if not protected by something.
With a slight twirl of his fingers, the spear spun in the air before Noah's leg blurred and hit the end, launching it backward towards Dohnaseek's direction at breathtaking speed, easily shattering the sound barrier.
With his body tensed and teeth greeted, Dohnaseek barely dodged the spear as it flew past him, blasting whatever came in its way, creating another hole into the church's wall.
"Good that you dodged it. I still have some stuff to try before I go back to greet my esteemed uncle."
"What are you talk—"
Ignoring the Florida man, Noah raised his hand and made a hand sign before starting an incarnation.
"Emerge from the darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure."
Suddenly, a mass of darkness started to extend from above in the sky before covering the whole church within itself, hiding it from the prying eyes outside.
It alerted everyone inside as they all looked at the black curtain and Noah with caution.
"Don't be so tense, I've come with peace." Noah said with a teasing smirk before taking a step back, dodging the slash of a lightsaber—which definitely was not a lightsaber.
"Oops! Now that is straight-up rude. At least let me complete it."
His right leg blurred before the sound of bone cracking was introduced within everyone's ear, making a chill crawl down their spine as they saw Freed literally cannonballed all the way to the roof before hitting the black curtain, producing vibrations within it before falling back onto the ground, lying there unconscious.
"Is that all?" His voice was laced with disappointment as he sighed. "Toji was a human you know and he could take that kick like a fart… Guess I can't treat anyone like that monster… Wait!? Does that mean I'm also a monster?!"
His smirk extended before he cracked his neck, staring at the remaining priests and the Fallen Angels that took one fearful step back seeing his feral grin and merciless gaze.
"I kinda like it." He said before his gaze trailed towards Raynare, checking her body up and down before a whistle left his lips. "Damn! Seeing it in real life sure is an experience of its own."
'She didn't look that sexy in the anime, to be honest…'
He internally thought, thinking that she looked way sexier in real life than in her animated version.
"Well then? Who is next?" He excitedly asked. His body has been itching for a fight since he came back from the Jujutsu Kaisen.
As said before, even if he is not doing anything, his body keeps on improving itself constantly at a rapid pace. He didn't even know where his physical strength lay currently.
All he knew was that Toji could easily obliterate a concrete building with a punch at his peak. But he couldn't really put his strength based on that, knowing that there were beings who could annihilate a fucking country in this world with a casual attack.
So now that he finally got a chance to fight and try his current strength, it made him quite excited.
"We have no other choice, do we?" With a smile that clearly showed her inner turmoil, Raynarre questioned seeing Noah's increasing smirk.
She looked towards Kalawarrna for a second, both of them nodded together before they shouted together.
"We surrender!"
"..."
Maybe he shouldn't have given them a chance to speak…